In-car Twittering on the rise?

OnStar recently denied it was designing an in-car gadget for voice-activated Twittering from behind the wheel. But such a gadget could well prove handy, because it’s been discovered that Tweeting on the move is an alarmingly common driver activity.

Insurance firm Esure recently "monitored" - interesting ramifications for privacy, that claims - “driving-related Tweets” on Twitter for seven days and discovered that dozens of motorists each day update their pages while driving.

For example, one driver updated their Twitter page to say: “Driving with my knees and peeling an orange... Probably not the safest thing to be doing."

Other drivers updated their Twitter pages to say: “Driving school bus," “Driving up to Newcastle while we Tweet!” and “Is it wise to use Twitter while driving? Probably not.”

It’s worth reading the Tweets with a pinch of salt, though, because some could have been written by passengers or people pretending to be driving while Twittering.

However, Esure also questioned 1000 UK motorists and discovered that - despite 92 per cent knowing it’s illegal to hold and use a phone while driving, 45 per cent still admitted to texting or making calls while behind the wheel.

Mike Pickard, Head of Risk and Underwriting at Esure, said motorists updating Twitter from behind the wheel are a real cause for concern.

“Constantly updating friends and family on what we're doing is now becoming the norm,” he said. “Our advice to motorists is to remove this temptation altogether by switching off all mobile technology before driving.” ®